


Over the Hills and Far Away

by Tsuki_Amano



Series: 365 Stucky Shots [40]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Fluff and Crack, M/M, but mostly crack, fairy tale AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 08:49:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8572018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsuki_Amano/pseuds/Tsuki_Amano
Summary: All Steve Rogers wanted to do was save a damsel-in-distress (terms and conditions applied) and become a knight. It shouldn't be that hard. Except so far, he's fallen down a rabbit burrow, been cursed (thanks to his Fairy Godfather) and hasn't found a single damsel. This may be the longest quest he's ever been on. Plus there's also the slight problem that he seems to be falling for the rather hapless ninja he's met along the way.Or the Fairytale AU where's Steve's a knight (if you squint), Bucky's a hapless knight (it's a work-in-progress), Tony's a wizard once he gets his spells right, Clint's sure he's a thief even if he's never stolen anything and Natasha just wants everyone to be quiet and let her finish her book.





	

Interfering Fairy Godfathers were the absolute worst sometimes. Oh, of course Steve loved Dr. Erskine, it was hard not to. But he still wanted to scream every so often, because yes, Dearest Magical Godparent, he had packed enough huckleberry and elm cordial for trading and he had more than enough wormwood in his supplies kit. He wasn’t completely stupid.

Granted, he would never voice his thoughts out loud because not only did he have nothing but the utmost respect for his Godfather, but also because his mother was standing _right there_ and she was actually terrifying when she wanted to be.

By the time he’s finished packing and re-packing ( _alright so he forgot the sacred oak branch_ ), Dr. Erskine’s getting teary-eyed and that’s not something Steve’s sure he can deal with right now. He pats the elderly man gingerly on the back, avoiding his wings and tries not to squirm as he gets pulled into a bear-hug.

“Your first Quest!” Erskine says, choking up, “Steven my boy, how you’ve grown!”

“Um.”

From the side, he can see his mother giving him a look which spells out suffering if he doesn’t step up his game.

“Thanks Dr?”

The elderly man lets out a sob and hugs Steve tighter. Steve’s sort of afraid for his ribs.

He supposes in a way, it’s nice to know that he’ll be missed. It’s his first ‘Quest’ as they called it. It’s more than a bit archaic, but it’s an old tradition in their kingdom which states that all knights-to-be needed to save a damsel before they could officially be knighted. Steve’s not sure why that’s still a criterion, and personally he felt people needed to get their shit together because Peggy, by the strictest definition was a damsel, and he doubted that the people who had framed these laws had ever been hit by her rolling pin.

But it’s Steve’s dream to be a knight and to protect people and regardless of any curse made by evil, easily insulted fairies ( _thanks for that Dr. Erskine_ ), he’d do his best to become someone who could protect his kingdom.

It’s late by the time he finally sets out, he’s hardly riding out into the distant horizon as the brilliant sun lights up the sky. But in a way, he’s sort of happy that it’s relatively deserted when he’s leaving because it’s kind of embarrassing how poorly prepared he is for this. Unlike a lot of the other knights who were heading out on their journeys, Steve’s mode of transportation was a bicycle. (Horses were outlawed almost three decades ago, because of animal cruelty laws). He didn’t have anyone who was willing to accompany him on the quest, because aside from Peggy, he didn’t have any close friends and while she would make an amazing ally, Angie was expecting their first child and there was no way anyone could ask her to leave.

As he swings his bag on the bicycle and kicks the stand up, his mother hugs him and presses a kiss to his forehead and makes him promise not to get into silly fights for no good reason. Dr. Erskine sobs into his handkerchief and Angie gives him a friendly punch on his arm. Peggy hugs him tightly and says, “Do promise you’ll look after yourself darling. And that you’ll call us as soon as you get to the next town.”

“Of course Pegs, I promise.”

As he waves goodbye to them and heads into the distant setting sun, he misses his step and tumbles headfirst into a rabbit burrow.

All in all, it’s a great start to his quest.

A week later, he’s ready to barter with the evil sea hag because he’s fed up, covered with mosquito bites and kind of lost (ok totally lost but that’s another thing all together).

His first stop had been a small shire about two days’ travel from his own home. As per the guide-book ( _now you too could find your own damsel and distress for an easy payment of seven acorns plucked under a full-moon! Terms and conditions apply_ ), it was regularly ravaged by a dragon that lived in the caves nearby and there was always someone to save.

Except.

As it turned out, the guidebook was just a bit outdated and the locals had long since made peace with the dragon (it was amazing what a well-spiced rotisserie chicken or two could do) and the leader of the shire had patted him sympathetically on his back and told him that he was very sorry but there really wasn’t much for him here.

On his way out, he’d pulled a young lad out from a well (just because it said wishing well, didn’t mean you could take a swan dive into it. That didn’t make the wishes come true any faster). He knew that wouldn’t do much for him in terms of the Quest completion, but he wasn’t going to leave him there to drown.

For his troubles, the boy’s mother gives him a wedge of freshly baked cake so he supposes it’s not all that terrible.

He’d been about to try his luck at the town near the caves, because there was always a horde or two of goblins that were terrorising people. But as he’d come close to the turning he’d seen a huge swarm of prospective knights (all with the logos of HYDRA on them) heading towards the city. He’d turned on the ball of his foot and kept on his merry way.

So here he was, sitting under the shade of a large elm tree, shivering under his quilt, poring over the map and hoping that he would be able to find something.

Taking a despondent bite out of his cake, he pulls a chunk off and hands it to the curious tree spirit that’s popped up beside him. She coos over it excitedly and pats his cheek before vanishing. Well, at least one of them was happy he supposed.

The crackling of footsteps on the fallen leaves draws his attention and he sits up straighter. For the most part, this path was deserted and he hoped to the heavens it wasn’t a rogue troll.

As the scrub brush in front of him pulls open, he realises it isn’t a troll.

It’s another human.

Wearing a black tunic and deep blue pants, Steve’s drawn to his arm, which appears to be made out of metal. His brown hair is pulled into a messy bun and he’s got a mask that loosely covers half his face. If Steve had to decide, he’d say he resembles a racoon just a bit, probably owing to the black war paint that surrounds his eyes. The man has paused now, staring incredulously at Steve, his bright blue eyes wide open.

There’s silence for a few minutes and even the wood nymphs are watching interestedly.

“Uh… hello.” Steve tries, not really sure what else he can say.

“You weren’t supposed to know I was here.” The other man says sullenly. Noting Steve’s confusion, he sits down in front of Steve’s tiny campfire, cross-legged with his arms folded and boy, thinks Steve, would he make the world’s grumpiest racoon.

His pout seems to intensify and he blurts out, “I’m a ninja!”

“Aren’t ninjas meant to be stealthy?” And oh no, now he’s gone and offended him, because he looks positively distraught.

“I’m a work in progress.”

“That’s the spirit,” he says, poking at the fire, “You’ll get there with some practice.”

The ninja looks at him for a few more minutes before he asks, “Is that cake?”

And that’s how Steve Rogers meets Bucky Barnes, ninja-in-training. He’s not very keen, Steve realises, to talk about himself a lot, but he supposes since they don’t know each other very well, that’s understandable. He also likes cake, and Steve watches the man finish the remainder of his thank you present and then lick each of his fingers clean, ducking his own head to avoid Bucky seeing the crimson tint that graced his cheeks.

Ten minutes later, he finds himself nodding when Bucky asks him if he can share his campfire tonight.

“I mean, I’d make my own campfire but the smoke would blow my cover.”

“Yes, but wouldn’t my campfire draw attention to us anyway?”

“Maybe,” Bucky doesn’t look terribly concerned, “But at least that way I’m not the one who lit it.”

Steve doesn’t even want to ponder the logic behind that statement.

“So, uh. What made you decide to become a ninja?”                    

“Didn’t like the direction my life was heading in at that point in time, plus I’ve always had a way with sharp, pointy objects.”

Shrugging, the man pulls out a nunchuck and attempts to twirl it. It slips off his finger and embeds itself in the tree trunk above Steve’s head, narrowly missing him by a hair. He watches the blond man go pale and then look up before scooting away from the tree.

“Will you be wanting that back then?” he asks.

“Um, yes, yes that’d be good, thanks.”

Very politely, in Bucky’s opinion at least, Steve doesn’t call him out on his blatant lie. He just quietly tells Bucky to please keep the pointy objects to a minimum when they’re sleeping.

Later in the night, Steve’s fast asleep, but Bucky isn’t. He lays flat on his back, staring up at the night sky. He gazes at the full moon and the twinkling stars and the witch apprentices that are out for spins on their brooms because there’s not much wind or cloud cover. But even the sight of one of them pulling off a fantastic spin in mid-air isn’t enough to quell his fear.

It’s not that he has a problem with knights in general (alright, maybe he isn’t exactly what you’d call fond of them). But eventually Steve’s going to stumble upon the ruins of his old hut and look for the ‘damsel’ who used to live there and then he’ll find out Bucky’s terrible secret.

One day, he was going to learn how to handle a dagger with precision so he could strike fear into people’s hearts. When that happened, he’d finally get revenge on Brock Rumlow for that stupid prank he’d pulled years ago, because that absolute jerk had thought it would be funny to register his younger cousin Bucky as a damsel. Except they hadn’t realised that it was permanent once done and thanks to some political red tape of where they lived, damsels were stuck waiting for some knight to show up and ‘rescue’ them or whatever. Until then they were sitting ducks and couldn’t do anything.

Unfortunately for Bucky, not only was his hut out of the way, but the few knights who had ever shown up had cracked up so hard over the prospect of him being their Damsel-in-Distress, they’d never actually gotten around to doing anything. (It may have had something to do with the fact that he’d poured a bucket of water on one who’d tried to get too handsy and he’d threatened to set a rabid mouse on another).

His stepfather had finally, in a fit of rage, set his tiny little hut on fire and he’d gathered what little he could and run. He didn’t have a lot of formal education and he wasn’t particularly good at anything, so he’d decided his two options were joining the circus or going to the big city to find work. Midway through his hike, a paper brochure had blown into his face and he peeled it off, spluttering. On the bright yellow and green paper, there were instructions on how a person could become a ninja, someone who could make themselves be almost untraceable and strong. Bucky took it as a sign and the next day, he got his nunchucks and shurikens and his outfit.

Maybe he won’t be the world’s best ninja but he’ll find a place in the world yet.

Shuffling from the other side of the fire startles him, and he looks down to see Steve who’s sitting up, rubbing at his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, stifling a yawn, “You’re thinking really loud.”

“It’s nothing,” says Bucky quietly, “Nothing at all.”

“Can’t be nothing if it’s keeping you awake.”

He just shrugs.

Shaking his head, Steve digs around in his pack and pulls out a bottle of something. Shaking out a pill, he holds it out to Bucky. “Here, it’s all natural, my mom made it. She’s a healer, best in town. It’s to make you have good dreams.”

Wanting to avoid offending the other, Bucky swallows the purple and blue pill, humming over its marshmallow-like taste. He drops off to sleep in less than 10 minutes and for the first time in ages, he doesn’t have nightmares. Instead he dreams of knights in gleaming armour and hair spun like gold, that battle evil cousins and stepfathers and eat cake with him.

                                                                                                                                     

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know. I literally don't.
> 
> I just had a mental image of Steve telling Bucky to 'let down his long hair' and Bucky throwing a bucket at him. This is why I don't write children's books.


End file.
